World's first remotely operated commercial vessel

Jun 22, 2017

Ben Heselton-Clements

Rolls Royce

Earlier this year the captain of the 28-meter long tugboat SvitzerHammond made commercial shipping history when he undocked and maneuvered through the quay without setting foot on the vessel. He was sitting in the remote control station at Svitzer headquarters in Copenhagen, piloting the vessel by a wide range of sensors. “[It] was a world first,” said Mikael Makinen, president of the Rolls-Royce marine sector. “A genuinely historic moment for the maritime industry.”

The captain docked the tugboat again near Svitzer Headquarters. It demonstrated that the time of autonomous shipping is becoming a reality.

Rolls-Royce and Svitzer, which developed SvitzerHammond, have partnered for future projects and plan to continue development and construction on remote control and autonomous vessels.